Half-round trailers are well known and comprise a body that includes an open-top cargo space adapted to contain bulk commodities such as sand, salt, construction materials, raw materials, debris, asphalt paving materials, etc. The cargo space of these known half-round trailers is defined by a series of sheets of aluminum alloy (hereinafter “aluminum”) that are formed into a radiused other curved shape and connected together to form the tub-like cargo space. The body is supported on a partial-length or full-length chassis including at least one axle with left and right wheel and tire assemblies that allow the trailer to roll across a road or other support surface when pulled by a truck tractor to which the trailer is operably connected.
These known half-round trailers are sometimes preferred for the ease with which the load slides from the cargo space during dumping operations and the fact that the load shifts to the center of the cargo space and downward during dumping operations. Unfortunately, known sheet-style half-round trailers have been found to be unstable during dumping and cornering due to the flexibility of the body and the high ride height associated with known designs. The arrangement of the body relative to the chassis in these known sheet-style half-round trailers also fails to optimize the payload capacity of the cargo space due to the excessive spacing of the body above the chassis and also due to the inherent curvature of the sheets used to construct the body.